Movie review: In ‘The Lost City of Z,’ a man answers to the call of the wild

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Apr 17, 2017 at 11:50 AMApr 17, 2017 at 11:50 AM

Ed Symkus More Content Now

The idea of writer-director James Gray, best known for making films in contemporary gritty urban settings (“The Yards,” “We Own the Night”), telling the true tale of a Brit exploring the jungles of South America in the early 1900s, is a stretch. But Gray rises to the occasion in “The Lost City of Z,” trimming down the lengthy David Grann book about Major Percy Fawcett and turning it into an epic adventure movie.

Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam) is introduced in 1905 as a man who’s been in the army for quite a while, has never won a medal, and is worrying that he’s getting too old for that to ever happen. Opportunity knocks when the Royal Geographical Society, knowing that Fawcett had some surveying work on his resume, sends him off to properly map the sketchy border between Brazil and Bolivia, where the rubber industry is booming, and dubious borders could lead to war. And, they mention, if he does the job well, there could be some “soldierly decorations.”

And so he goes, leaving his upset but understanding wife Nina (Sienna Miller) and his young son behind, then joining up with another British military man, Henry Costin (an unrecognizable Robert Pattinson), who will be his aide-de-camp on the journey through the jungles of Amazonia.

Warned as soon as they get there by some English-speaking workers that their mission is too dangerous and that should go home, Fawcett ignores the advice, hires a guide and some locals, and sets sail upstream in small boats, only to learn that they should have listened. In a scene reminiscent of “Apocalypse Now,” the boats are attacked by natives who let their arrows fly from the banks.

Gray’s script shows us a proud man who is striving to get ahead, but starts experiencing some self doubt. Why did I come here, he asks himself. The answer comes soon after, when, safe, but still in the middle of the jungle, he stumbles upon some shards of pottery and is convinced that they’re signs of a long-gone civilization.

Returning to England, he’s welcomed by his loving wife, who has had a son while he was gone, but when he announces his findings to the Royal Geographical Society, he’s met with jeers. They suggest that he’s just another looney, searching for the golden city of El Dorado. “No,” he shoots right back. “It’s the city of Z!” (which, as Brits do, he pronounces as zed).

So after once again leaving his wife, again pregnant, behind, it’s a return to Amazonia where Fawcett is transformed from dutiful cartographer to determined explorer. The trusty Costin is still at his side, and now the wealthy adventurer James Murray (Angus Macfadyen) is tagging along, proving, alas, to be a detriment to the enterprise.

The film works both as sprawling story and as a study of a man who believes it’s his destiny to, in his words, “attempt great things.” It also suggests that Fawcett might be delusional, but that word doesn’t appear to be in his vocabulary. When his party visits a tribe that he can communicate with, and he looks at their achievements in agriculture, he turns to Costin and says, with wonder, “These so-called savages have cultivated the jungle.” Then he adds, “Imagine what Z must be like!”

There’s another trip home, where Fawcett meets his infant daughter; a strange plot turn has James Murray trying to sue him for putting his life in peril; and a whole other story sends Fawcett to the front lines of WWI, where he’s gravely wounded, and puts him at odds with his son Jack (Tom Holland, our next Spider-Man), who accuses Fawcett of continually abandoning the family.

Though the film is nearly over at this point, Fawcett’s story has many miles -- including a return to the jungle, now with Jack -- to go. What makes it all the more fascinating is that while most of this is about him and his exploits, it becomes clear that it’s as much about Nina, who has been left at home worrying about him all these years, and now remains there worrying about him and their son.

A mystery ensues, as does the possibility of tragedy. But Gray ends the film with an aura of physical beauty -- nighttime jungle scenes lit only by small fires -- and with a ray of hope in the mind of Nina.

-- Ed Symkus writes about movies for More Content Now.

“The Lost City of Z”Written and directed by James GrayWith Charlie Hunnam, Robert Pattinson, Sienna Miller, Angus MacfadyenRated PG-13